Meta has been warned that facial recognition glasses will weaponize sexual predators

More than 70 Civil liberties, domestic violence, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+, labor, and immigrant advocacy organizations call on Meta to abandon plans to deploy facial recognition on… Ray Ban and Oakley smart glasses, warning that the feature — known within the company as a “name tag” — would He delivers Stalkers, abusers, and federal agents have the ability to silently identify strangers in public.

The coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, Access Now, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is calling on Meta to stop the feature before it launches, after… Internal documents have emerged It shows the company is hoping to use the current “dynamic political environment” as cover for the startup, betting that civil society groups’ resources will be “focused on other concerns.”

The nametag, as revealed by The New York Times in February, will work through an AI assistant built into Meta smart glasses, allowing wearers to get information about people in their field of vision. Engineers were reportedly considering two versions of the feature: one that would only identify people the wearer is already connected to on the Meta platform, and a broader version that could identify anyone with a public account on a Meta service like Instagram.

The coalition wants Meta to scrap the feature entirely. In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, she said facial recognition in blurred consumer glasses “cannot be solved through product design changes, opt-out mechanisms, or additional safeguards.” She says bystanders in public have no meaningful way to consent to being identified.

Meta is also urged to disclose any known instances of its wearable devices being used in cases of stalking, harassment, or domestic violence; Disclose any past or ongoing discussions with federal law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, about the use of wearable devices or data from them; And a commitment to consulting civil society and independent privacy experts before integrating biometric identification into any consumer device.

“People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists from across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors,” wrote the groups, which also include Common Cause, Jane Doe Inc., UltraViolet, the National Organization for Women, and the New York State Anti-Business Coalition. household. Violence, the Libraries Freedom Project, and ancient dykes against billionaire Tech Bros., among others.

Meta did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

EssilorLuxottica, the Italian-French eyewear group that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley and makes smart glasses with Meta, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a May 2025 memo from Meta’s Reality Labs obtained by The Times, Meta reportedly wrote that it would launch “during a dynamic political environment in which many of the civil society groups we expect to attack us are focusing the resources of other concerns.”

The coalition calls the distraction play “despicable behavior” and accuses the company of exploiting “rising authoritarianism” and the Trump administration’s “disregard for the rule of law.”

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) She sent her private messages to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state law enforcement in February urging them to investigate and block the rollout of the name tag. The group warned that real-time facial recognition would double what it called the “already serious and apparently illegal” privacy risks of existing Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which can secretly record passers-by without any warning except a small light that can be easily hidden. People can be identified at protests, places of worship, support groups and medical clinics, “destroying the concept of privacy or anonymity in public spaces,” EPIC wrote.